Jordan Kobritz

Articles matching tag: Deflategate

If you feel like you’ve overdosed on Deflategate, you’re not alone. Millions of Americans feel just like you and millions more may join your group before the case hisses its way to a final conclusion.
The case that seemingly won’t end has completed its latest chapter. Last week the Second Circuit Court of Appeals voted 2-1 to reinstate Patriots quarterback Tom Brady’s four-game suspension for tampering with the air pressure in footballs. Brady was initially suspended by an NFL hearing officer for allegedly tampering with the footballs used in the Patriots’ AFC Championship game rout of the Indianapolis Colts in January of 2015.

If you want to see how much incompetence $10 billion can buy, you need only look to the new rules the NFL has adopted in response to the DeflateGate scandal.
The NFL created a mountain from a molehill by escalating a simple rules violation that carried a $25,000 fine into a loss of draft picks against the New England Patriots and a four game suspension of quarterback Tom Brady. And the controversy seemingly without end now resides in federal court.

Thoughts and musings on the Wells Report and its aftermath.
1. Wells’ conclusion that it was “more probable than not” that low-level Patriots’ employees were playing fast and loose with the air pressure in the game balls used in this year’s AFC Championship game is typical NFLese. It’s the legal equivalent of the “preponderance of the evidence” used in civil cases.
2. The Report’s conclusion that Tom Brady was “at least generally aware” of the nefarious activity is more problematic. Throughout his career Brady has let it be known that he prefers footballs on the low end of the pressure scale allowed by the league. In an effort to please the star quarterback, it appears as if the employees took matters into their own hands and the result was right out of a Three Stooges playbook. If Brady suspected – or even if he knew - they were breaking the rules, was he obligated to snitch on them? If an umpire thinks a batter was hit by a pitch when he wasn’t, should the batter correct the umpire?

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, a tempest in a teapot is “a great commotion over an unimportant matter.” So far, that’s the best way to describe Deflategate, which is perhaps the worst word ever created.
The whole did-they-or-didn’t-they – Coach Bill Belichick, quarterback Tom Brady, or another member of the New England Patriots – intentionally let air out of the footballs used during the first half of the Patriots’ thrashing of the Indianapolis Colts in the AFC Championship Game has already taken up more time and space than it warrants. And unfortunately, we haven’t seen the end of the soap opera yet.